Today I got locked up on a parking lot. After I had to leave motonet because they were closing I cross checked some prices online. An truly awesome store btw: car, motorcycle, boat camping and outdoor stuff. Looking up from the screen I saw two guys locking one of the gates of the parking lot. When I started to drive in their direction they drove off. Dickheads… All gates were closed. A local couple was locked out and couldn’t get to their car and I was locked in. At least they could translate this sign…

“The parking lot is closed 15 minutes after the shops. If you’re locked in call the following number and pay 40€”

They guy tried to phone someone in the store and I had a look at the gate. I asked if they would consider opening the gate ourselves illegal and got no answer.

13mm bolt & nut… One nut already missing…

Hmmm, if they would really have wanted to lock it the would have used the chain hanging on the left because the joint between the actual lock and the gate is just two bolts. The rest of the story is quite short, his wife (?) started laughing when I gathered tools from the van and didn’t stop until we had “locked” the gate again and were driving off. Didn’t take that long actually…

Odo: 284136
Location: Helsinki, Finland

That roadsign on the highway and the fact that I crossed a timezone (Finland is GMT+3) made me aware that I drove quite a distance to the east. I spent some fun days at Turku, made friends with a very decent local who brought me to a vegan book cafe.

I forgot to ask for a translation but probably it says smash fascism… and that ponies are awesome 🙂

feeling at home in a bathroom of a vegan cafe… the first time I actually saw political stickers. And yes, I photographed all of them. There were no more.

The resemblance of the harz mountains is growing stronger. It’s not that flat anymore and it’s rocky as well. The view from my friends window could be anywhere in the wester

The same window from the other side.

At the moment I’m in Helsinki. Yesterday a very nice local gave me a little guided tour around the not so obvious sights of the city. An former freight harbor is being converted to housings. The process will take 20 years and the city actually paid somebody to coordinate the usage of the area in between. Urban gardeners are given free soil and water by the city. Walls are put up for graffiti artists. There are large Freight containers for different projects like a cafe for example. And there’s quite some space which people just use as they want. Some folks build a sauna but that was too much for the city, they took it down. A pizza oven was accepted after some quarrels though. I quite laughed my arse off when a motorcycle driving school did the first lessons of a student (drive around cones) just next to some stunting guys making wheely circling, stoppies and wheelies sitting on the handlebar. I forgot to take a photo.

It seems the alternative scene isn’t that strong over here. Info shops, cultural centers, squads, alternative trailer parks (I’m still searching for the translation of Wagenplätze), independent youth centers and places alike are not very common in scandinavia. I already got some hints for possible causes but I think I’ve got to investigate further…

The visit was different to most prior travels of mine. I was there for almost two weeks and didn’t learn any of the language on purpose but at least a few words stuck anyways. I didn’t taste any specialty. I went to no museum and did no sightseeing. I stayed at a campground once and slept one night in a hotel. Instead of touristy activity I spent plenty of hours talking to the natives getting to know them and the country.

Some observations:

• The swedes are a sporty bunch. You don’t ask anybody if they go to a gym, you ask them to which gym they go to. Runners everywhere, families tend to exercise with their children. There even public “gyms” just like there are public playgrounds in germany where you have different stations to work out.
• Alcohol consumption seems to be quite low, smoking seems uncommon as well. Smokers tend to take at least 5m of distance to non smokers when outside.
• The standards for equality are high. I met women who said that they are no feminists at all but from my point of view were more feminist than plenty of germans claiming themselves feminists. Very self confident and laid back at the same time. Awesome company!
• The swedes love to be outdoors. Having a boat and a summer house at or near a lake is quite common. Companies do sport activities outdoors to raise the team spirit.
• Stockholm is a very nice city but they try their best to keep motorists out of the city. As a foreigner you don’t have to pay the general city entrance fee but parking is around 2€ / hour from 9-17h in most places. There is no such thing as free parking and there’re places which are even more expensive and/or fees apply all day. So expect to pay 15€ / day just for parking. My suggestion: Leave the city at 09:00 to one of the nice lakes around the city (10km / 15min drive), enjoy your day there and return at 17:00. Not exactly environment friendly but at least budget friendly…
• The “swedish bikini team” (as featured in “Married… with children” (Al Bundy) and old US beer commercials)) is fake. They are US actresses with blonde wigs…
• I saw no hitchhikers at all
• A swedish mile is 10km. Roadsigns are all in km but some swedes tend to give distances in swedish miles.

All in all I liked sweden a lot and I will come back for sure. The only reason I have to push on was best described by eve: “So you drove 1400km just to be at a place which looks exactly like your home place?”. No, I didn’t. I love the south of sweden exactly for being like a vaster, flatter version of the harz mountains but I’m travelling. So I want to see new stuff which means I have to move on. I can imagine living in the Stockholm area though. It’s just like a 1,3 million inhabitants town in the middle of the harz mountains. Does it get any better than this?

“I gotta get outta here” — Alice Cooper

I hate ferries. Most times they are too large to give you the expression that you’re actually on the water. The only ferry rides which where fun for me had been on the phillipine islands. You couldn’t use the toilets any more due to zillions of sick people but at least it felt like aktually beeing on open water.

I’m feeling reasonably secure with Tallink Lines. The date for the next test of the lifeboats is not too far in the past…

Normally I would just get utterly drunk to pass the time. But since I have to drive a van after the passage I have to stay sober. The only place with tables so far was the Starlight casino. At the stern of the ferry it’s got quite some vibrations from the engine but it was fine. Until a band started to play. This must be musician’s hell. The same fucking songs which are probably played on every ferry or cruise ship. Breakfast at tiffanies, C’est la vie, “money, money, money”, “gimme, gimme”, “(lengthy sax intro)… Tequila!” … I don’t even now the name of the songs. Just the refrain. The band plays so sloppy that even I am able to tell and the look in their faces looks like half-well disguised hatred. I would like to sit down with them and get drunk. Well, this will probably not happen… At least they have one fan…

Sorry for the shitty photo. The fan wears a white shirt and is in the left part of the picture..

Yesterday I stayed at the other public beach. Until now I was able to dodge any german travellers. But since there were only the two of us I had to communicate. The guy seemed reasonably decent, approx. 20 years older so I sat down for a couple of beers with him. Told some stories, listened to some, the usual. Interesting was that his view of Sweden was quite the opposite from mine. He told me there’re plenty of lazy people, many obese and that he can’t stand it any more and wouldn’t return. When I asked him were he got that notion from he said from the kind of driving their cars and waiters at restaurants. WEIRD! So he actually never got to know any swedes. When some young women showed up to take a night swim I got an idea why. He had to comment on every passing body and was staring & drooling so much that I felt compelled to tell him that this behavior is not appreciated and to excuse myself to the women for him being a dickhead. Why do have so many older men have to be like this? It really freaks me out. I mean everybody takes a peek from time to time no matter what gender and that’s ok in my book. But is it so difficult to just smile at the faces of passing folks and say a friendly “Hello”?

guitar, bass and bocals of the nameless band. My “this one looks least likely to hassle us” look lured them directly to me. I didn’t manage to start a conversation though. And they were not drinking…

“Under my umbrella, ella, ella”… I gotta get outta here! Next time I hope I’ll won’t forget my headphones…